


Four Times Red, Blue, and Leaf Talk About the Future, and One Time They Talk About the Past

by littlebassoonist



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Conflictshipping, F/M, Graphic Description, I am incapable of writing happy characters so sorry for the ending, M/M, Underage Drinking, darker and edgier (tm) pokemon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-09 22:54:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13491510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlebassoonist/pseuds/littlebassoonist
Summary: What it says on the tin. Three kids from Pallet Town think they know what their futures are going to be like. Spoilers: they're wrong, but also sort of right.





	Four Times Red, Blue, and Leaf Talk About the Future, and One Time They Talk About the Past

What do you want to be when you grow up? It’s a simple question, one that Leaf, Red, and Blue have all heard a number of times. Their first grade teacher has asked that they have an answer by tomorrow, as homework. Red and Blue both feel no need to prepare, but Leaf insists on talking about their answers when they walk home from school.

“I’m gonna be a teacher and scientist just like Blue’s grandpa,” Leaf declares. 

“Champ!” Red says.

“No, _I’m_ gonna be the Champion,” Blue says. “But you can be in my Elite Four.”

“Champ,” Red says again. 

Blue thinks for a moment. “You can be Champion before me, and then I’ll challenge you and win. So then we’re both Champions, but I’m the bigger Champion.”

“No,” Red says simply.

“What type will you use?” Leaf asks, tired of their rivalry. 

“Dragons,” Blue says confidently. “Those are the strongest.”

“All,” is Red’s reply. 

“You have to have a type,” Leaf insists. “In the Elite Four, anyway. Everyone knows that.”

“All.”

“I’ll just use thunderbolt and earthquake and flamethrower and dragon rage until I win.” This is always Blue’s tactic when Red annoys him, to resort to super-effective moves. “And Leaf, don’t you wanna be a mommy? Daisy wants to be a mommy.”

Daisy is the coolest person Leaf has ever met because she is older and still plays with them. Daisy plays referee to their pretend battles and judges their contests, and sometimes she asks Professor Oak to let Leaf in the lab. 

“Can I be a mommy and a teacher?” Leaf asks. 

“Grandpa is a grandpa and a teacher.”

“Then maybe I’ll be a mommy. But I want to be a teacher.”

The trio rounds a familiar corner and walks on their street. Once their shoes cross that one crack in the sidewalk, the one beside where their neighbors’ eevee likes to poo, the three take off running.

“Race!” Blue yells. He usually wins. 

Red pulls ahead just in time, silent aside from the plodding of his sneakers. He touches the Oak front door first, turns around, and smiles. 

“You only won because I stopped to say ‘race,’” Blue pouts.

“You didn’t stop!” Leaf says, out of breath. 

Blue ignores her and opens the door to his house. “Maybe Daisy will let us play with her meowth. I wanna help it learn new attacks so it can be the strongest meowth in Kanto. But we’ll have to make it evolve.”

Leaf and Red look at each other a little exasperated with their best friend, but they follow him upstairs nonetheless, ready to train a meowth and answer tomorrow’s homework.

\- - -

“My mom’s whole flower thing is getting kind of weird,” Leaf says, looking nervously over her shoulder. Her parents think she’s going to the Oak house—which she is—but they don’t know she’s going to be with Blue and Red rather than Daisy.

“How?” Red asks.

“She doesn’t want to just sell flowers. She wants to sell, I don’t know, flower things. Making rose water, perfume, soap, candied begonias.”

“People eat flowers?” Blue asks. They walk into the Oak house, where the Professor is conveniently absent. Blue plans these sleepovers for nights when his grandfather is likely to sleep in the lab, (which is most nights), and when Daisy is too busy to be nosy. Tonight, his sister is taking online lectures with Viridian U, and she ought to be occupied for a few hours at least.

“Broccoli is a flower and you eat that.” Red snorts, as if to say that Blue has probably never touched a piece of broccoli in his life. “Anyway, it gets weirder. She’s making infused vodkas. With flowers.” Leaf lowers her voice. “So I stole some.”

“You filled in the bottle with water, right? So she won’t notice?”

“Technically, it was a mason jar. And yes. You were very specific about stealing alcohol from our parents.”

“And you got the whiskey?” Blue asks Red.

Red nods and pats his backpack. Professor Oak doesn’t drink, so Blue’s only responsibility for this night is to host the festivities.

They are fourteen and have never gotten drunk, though Blue talks as if the one beer Daisy let him have last year counts. Leaf is too much of a good girl to want to do this, and Red is too quiet for it to occur to him, but they both love Blue and follow his lead, no matter how stupid the idea. (Except for the one time that he suggested they take his family’s meowth out for a battle in the woods against some wild rattata. Leaf put an end to that idiotic nonsense and kept the poor meowth safe inside.) 

The trio sits in Blue’s room, cross-legged on the floor. Leaf withdraws her lavender infused vodka, poured hastily into a plastic water bottle, while Red gets his Pewter Gold Whiskey. Blue insists that they drink from the bottles, and the idea of sharing a bit of spit is naughty and thrilling. 

Red goes first. Red always goes first because he’s the bravest, or maybe he doesn’t feel like using the words to be afraid. He takes a swig of the whiskey, makes a face, and hands the bottle off. 

Blue is determined to be just as stoic, so he steels himself. It burns more than he expects, he lets out a tiny cough, and he gives it to Leaf. 

Leaf decides that whiskey is the worst thing she has ever tasted in her life. It burns and it’s sweet enough to make her puke and now her stomach feels weird. She coughs a few times and hopes the vodka tastes less horrible.

It doesn’t. That doesn’t stop them from drinking it anyway.

They’re each two drinks in and getting giddy. 

“Fun,” Red says with a smile. 

“Let’s do this again, but find something that doesn’t taste like piss,” Leaf says.

“How do you know what piss tastes like?” Blue asks.

“I knew you’d say that.”

Blue makes a face. “Truth or Dare. Let’s play.” 

Leaf and Red are too buzzed to object. Besides, it’s hardly the worst thing Blue has ever suggested. 

Red doesn’t wait for them to pick him. He just says, “Dare.” 

“I dare you to drink the rest of Leaf’s shitty vodka.”

Leaf slaps Blue on the shoulder. “That will kill him, dumbass.”

“Fine. I dare you to drink, like, more of Leaf’s shitty vodka, but don’t die.”

It’s a predictable dare. Red plugs his nose, gets a laugh from his friends, and takes a long gulp of the stuff. He winces but places the water bottle on the ground with a triumphant thud. 

“Dare,” Blue says, impressed. 

Leaf feels embarrassment creep up her cheeks, hot and unbidden. But she also knows that she and Blue have been exchanging looks when Red isn’t looking, and sometimes when he is. She knows there’s something there, something she can’t quantify but that she wants to explore. 

“I dare you to kiss me,” she says.

Red’s eyebrows shoot up his forehead. Blue’s face stays remarkably passive. “That’s the best dare you can think of?”

“You dared Red to take another drink, which he would have done anyway. You’re not too scared, are you?”

“Bullshit,” Blue says, and he leans in to kiss her. 

It’s messy and rushed and their tongues are somehow involved. The sparkling energy she swore was crackling in the air a moment ago is gone, replaced by anxiety and awkwardness. It’s a mistake, she realizes with his tongue in her mouth. This is a mistake.

They pull apart.

“Sorry,” they say at the same time. Leaf can’t remember the last time Blue apologized for something. 

“Ew,” Red says. 

Blue clears his throat. “Anyway. Your turn.”

“Truth,” she says. 

Red thinks for a long time. Finally, he poses his question. “Why… hate… Pallet?”

“I don’t hate Pallet,” Leaf lies without realizing.

“Everyone hates Pallet, Leaf,” Blue says, already back to his patronizing self. 

The words tumble out. “I mean… There’s no university, so I have to leave to go to college. And the people here are so boring, like they only want to take over Daddy’s pidgey farm or work at the docks. Not you guys, obviously. And my mom is sort of bitchy now that she realizes I’m serious about going to college, and Dad is too pidgeyshit to divorce her even though he wants to. And the only thing worthwhile about this town is the Lab, but it’s filled with more Palletians, and _God,_ I don’t want to most exciting time of my life to be the time we snuck out and opened the neighbors’ coop!”

“Holy shit,” Blue says. Red nods.

Leaf takes an angry swig of whiskey.

The game falls apart soon after that. Leaf is too angry to talk about anything else, and she wants the boys to join her in abusing their hometown. It turns into “Truth or Truth,” which is really an excuse for them to share what few secrets they have.

“How are we going to get out of here?” Leaf asks. 

“Door,” Red says, smiling.

“Out of Pallet, idiot,” she says, but she smiles, too. 

“Champion.”

Blue rolls his eyes. “You’re still hung up on that, huh? With what pokémon? You’re just as stuck here as Leaf and me.”

“Pikachu.” While most of Red’s words sound like pebbles in his mouth that he has to labor to speak, Pikachu comes out clear.

“You got a pokémon? How? When?”

“Oak.”

Leaf’s heart skips a beat. Why did Oak give Red a pokémon but not one for his own grandson? And how would Blue react when she told them her own secret?

“Gramps is a real dick for not giving me a pokémon. I’d say congratulations, but I sort of hate you right now.”

“Drunk.”

Blue rolls his eyes, but it’s true. “While Red’s off becoming Champion, Leaf and me will stay here and make out when we’re bored, or something. And then apologize for it. I can’t believe we did that.”

“You grandpa gave me an apprenticeship at the Lab once exams are over,” she reveals. “Haven’t told my parents yet. But it’s going to fast-track me for graduation and make me a great candidate for colleges. Nobody turns down Oak’s interns.”

“Well shit!” Blue says.

“Nice,” Red says.

“Let’s put on battle videos or something,” he says, recovering himself. “You can take notes for your pikachu, you can study for research, and I can forget that my own grandfather doesn’t remember that I exist.”

\- - -

_Fill the pokédex,_ Oak said. _The psychics are the key to all this,_ he said. And now he is gone, abducted by Rockets, possibly dead.

Leg rubs her leg, which might need clean bandages. Red and Pikachu are in the wilds of Route 22, looking up tree trunks. Pikachu’s cheeks spark with excitement every so often, though Red looks as passive as ever. 

She tends to her pokédex to distract from the pain. She starts a new section in her rattata entry, one detailing the effects of a bite. It’s a flawed system, rooted in her biases and pain, limited to just her leg and her stitches and her pain killers. Still, the dex is in sore need of data, so her own experience will have to do for now.

Leaf is startled into awareness by an inhuman shriek from the forest. She follows the ruckus to where Red and Pikachu have a mankey pinned against a tree. He has a pokéball ready, but he refrains from throwing it.

“You,” is all Red tells her.

It’s her first pokémon, and it ought to be her throw.

She’s seen Red practice throws, so it’s less difficult than she would have imagined. The ball soars smoothly towards its target. It captures the pokémon, jiggles with the struggle, and closes tightly. Red gives her a pat on the back as congratulations. Pikachu seems slightly annoyed to have been denied the fight.

“At least now I can protect myself,” Leaf says, smiling despite herself. She isn’t sure what to do next, how long to wait before meeting her mankey as its trainer.

Slow claps echo through the trees. She turns to the clearing to find Blue, smirking as always. 

“Guess I don’t need to catch one of those now,” he drawls.

“You,” Red repeats, his tone now dark and accusing.

“Oh my god, you’re alive!” Leaf gushes. 

Blue rolls his eyes. “Who did you think was filling in the dex besides you?” 

“Oak,” she mumbles. It hasn’t even occurred to her that Oak gave his grandson a dex before her.

“Well, I’m an Oak, just not the one you wanted. Sorry to disappoint.”

Leaf pulls him into a hug. His body is stiff in her arms. “We didn’t know what to think when the Rockets came and you vanished. I’m so glad you’re not dead.”

“Cut the guilty bullshit,” he says. She lets him go and steps back, feeling as though he can see right through her. Does he know that they left without mourning? Does he know that they didn’t even look for his body? “You’re more worried about my Gramps than me.”

Leaf steels her features. “What do you want, Blue?”

“Same as you two. Find Gramps, fill the dex, might as well become Champion while I’m at it.”

“Come,” Red says weakly. “With.”

“No thanks,” Blue scoffs. “I don’t need you two slowing me down. I already have four pokémon, and you guys have what, one apiece? Pass.”

“Please,” Red replies.

“We’re trying to help Pallet,” Leaf says. “We want to make the case for a gym to be built there. No more massacres.”

Blue raises his eyebrows. “You think the League is going to listen? Is that why you’re going west? Nice try, but nobody with fewer than eight badges speaks to the League.” His gaze darkens with bitterness. “Besides, Pallet is a cancerous Podunk town. Maybe those weak shits deserved to die.”

Leaf gasps; Red tenses. Pikachu considers electrocuting Blue for that comment.

“You don’t mean that.”

Blue ignores that.

“You should go to Pewter first. Then Cerulean and the big cities. Hell, you might be halfway decent trainers when we meet again. But don’t expect me to wait up for you.” He turns directly to Red. “And when I’m Champion, I’m going to kill every last Rocket in the country. I might even let you help.”

He strolls away, back towards Viridian. The air is thick where he stood. Leaf has nearly forgotten her new pokémon. 

“We have to challenge the gyms now,” she says. “I mean, I figured you’d want to, but it’s not an option anymore.”

“Champion,” Red says. 

Leaf looks at the mountains to the west, the ones that house the Indigo League. She feels the weight of the pokéball in her hand, and something occurs to her.

“I’m naming her Indigo,” she says. “And now our journey starts for real.”

\- - -

Everything inside of Leaf hurts. The descent to Cerulean Cave was cruel to humans and pokémon alike, a long hike that threatened to drop them to their deaths at every turn. The backs of her eyelids are plastered with images of death: her butterfree burnt to a crispy husk by a burst of flame; Red’s nidoking that was driven into a mad rampage by psychic energy, so they had to put him down with a hyper beam Lance’s dragonite; Blue’s massive team of pokémon slaughtered in quick succession, until he refused to partake in the battle for fear of losing any other pokémon. Her wigglytuff had stood in front of her, guarding her with his huge mass, until Mewtwo sent a shard of ice like a bullet. Wigglytuff’s brains are still spattered like freckles on her face. Only her primeape, nidoqueen, and dragonair survive.

Her hand has remained clenched on the Masterball ever since it clicked shut. Her grief tempts her to crush it and kill the beast inside, as Red and Blue want so badly, but she remembers her promise to protect and research _all_ pokémon. 

They travel back to Pallet in pairs: she and Lance on his dragonite, Red and a horror-stricken Blue on his charizard, Oak and Blaine on a borrowed aerodactyl. They must look like a fierce group of warriors, flying homeward on dragons. 

Other League members will join them in a few days’ time. Leaf knows they will be forced to relive this experience over and over and over, until she could vomit from the pain of it all. 

She will not talk about it yet.

Lance helps her dismount his dragonite. If she weren’t in shock, she thinks his touch might burn when he places a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Red, Blue, Oak, and Blaine follow shortly after in a flap of heavy wings. She hasn’t visited the Lab since the night the Rockets came, so she is almost surprised to find the glass repaired. In her mind, it has been a broken ruin these many months.

Red and Blue are holding dirty, bloody, bruised hands. Or, more accurately, Red is holding Blue, who seems barely capable of standing, and theirs hands happen to be intertwined. 

“Let’s have a double date,” Leaf suggests. She can barely process what’s going on, but it comforts her to make plans. Plans that cannot be ripped apart by Mewtwo. 

“What?” Blue chokes.

“You two. And us. On a date. At the same time.” Lance raises an eyebrow but doesn’t object.

“Yes,” Red says. 

They start shuffling into the Lab. Oak directs them to his office while he, Lance, and Blaine make arrangements for the League members to come.

“Somewhere in Pallet or at the Plateau? Since half of us are in the League now.” Blue reddens a bit.

“Virdian. Middle.” Though it isn’t really the mid-point between the two, Leaf can’t deny that it’s a good idea. Blue will want to get out of Pallet, but the place where he lost his short-lived Championship is not somewhere he wants to go. Leaf just wants to be somewhere that isn’t soaked with bloody memories.

“I’ve heard of a nice Kalosian-Kantan fusion place in Viridian,” she offers. 

The boys nod.

“Then it’s a date.”

\- - -

It’s almost been three years since Mewtwo. That’s how they divide their timelines now: Before Mewtwo, that hellish Year of Mewtwo, and After Mewtwo. That Year of Mewtwo was actually a year and a half, and it wasn’t completely hellish, since Leaf met Lance, and Red and Blue took the League challenge. But it’s easiest for all of them to pretend it didn’t happen and move on. Of course, they have to talk about some things, but they still never speak about what Leaf calls The Shortest Champion Reign Ever. 

Blue and Red are currently on in their on-again, off-again relationship. The two men sit in a booth across from Leaf and Lance at their favorite restaurant in Viridian. Viridian has become their home base—Red (and Lance) can easily get there from the Plateau, Blue now runs the Viridian gym, and Leaf is attending university in Pewter. 

“I’ll have the gumbo, and he’ll have the blackened pidgey,” Blue says to a waitress. 

“Kingler fettucine,” Leaf says calmly. She orders the same thing every time. Lance orders the paras pasta platter, his guilty pleasure. And cracking open the claws will keep him occupied while she and her best friends have a long-overdue chat.

“Oh, and I can’t forget this,” she says, pulling a bottle from her purse.

Blue opens it and sniffs. “You didn’t.”

“I did. Mom’s lavender vodka, and I didn’t have to steal it this time.” 

Red rolls his eyes, but he takes a swig from the bottle nonetheless. 

“I’m sorry that I accepted all that attention from Oak without ever thinking how it might be hurting you,” Leaf tells Blue. 

“What?”

“I never apologized for that. Once I got my internship at the Lab, I stopped talking to you guys as much.” She drinks from the bottle. “Now it’s your turn.”

“My turn for what?” Blue asks.

“For talking about the shit we’ve been avoiding for years.”

“Sorry… killed… Mewtwo. No. Tried.” Red’s apology comes out in small pieces. 

“Thank you,” Leaf says. “I forgive you. You wanted to keep everyone safe.”

“What do you want me to say?” Blue asks. “Sorry I’m an asshole?”

They all laugh.

“I’m proud of you for becoming Champion,” Leaf tells him, to the shock of both Red and Blue. Nobody ever brings that up around Blue, even though it is customary to call someone a “former Champion.” Everyone calls Blue Blue. “You were Champion one week longer than I ever will be. Than most people ever will be. That’s something.”

He isn’t sure if he should smile at that. “Thanks. I think.”

When the food comes, the three Palletians are too buzzed to filter what they’re saying. 

“Thanks for daring me to kiss you that one time,” Blue tells Leaf. “It’s how I figured out that I’d rather be kissing Red. No offense.”

Leaf laughs, nearly choking on her noodles. “I’m glad to be responsible for your happiness, I guess.”

“Sometimes I wish I traveled with you guys,” he says. 

“No,” Red says.

They all look at him, even Lance, who has been distracting himself with extracting paras claw meat. 

“Champion,” Red says, pointing at Blue’s chest. “You… first. Champion.”

**Author's Note:**

> Headcanon: during the trio's journey, Lance is both head of the Elite Four and acting Champion, having taken over when the last Champion retired. So Blue just had to beat Lance to become Champion, whereas Red had to beat the Elite Four (including Lance) and Blue. 
> 
> I have a number of drabbles and vignettes from this universe that I might put up here if I feel inspired to finish any of them.


End file.
